When large amounts of data are stored on a computer readable medium, such as an optical disk, and when such data needs to be accessed quickly, it is advantageous to arrange the physical placement of the data on the computer readable medium so that it can be accessed as quickly as possible. For example, modern video games contain large amounts of high-definition graphics data, which needs to be loaded in real time from the disks as needed so that the game playing experience is not adversely slowed. It is advantageous to arrange the physical locations of the various video game files so as to minimize seek time by hardware that reads the data from the video game disk.
Software exists that makes it possible to lay out individual locations of files on a disk so that the data reads are as efficient as possible. However, in a production process where such disks are to be mass produced and distributed to the public, organizing the data using such software is not the last step in the production chain. Once the data is organized using such software, the disk image is typically handed off to a test team to verify that the disk image has the exact contents and performance characteristics required. However, using current systems, once the layout has been created, no further updates to the disk image can be made without regenerating the entire disk image, which is slow due the large amount of data involved, and which also requires very large amounts of processing and memory resources.
In the case of video game production, not being able to make incremental changes to a game disk image makes the game submission process for a title costly. Oftentimes, those who initially create the game disk image are not the ones that test or ultimately sign off on the final disk image. This means that when modifications need to be made to a game disk image, access to the original source data and the rerunning of the entire game disk layout and generation process is presently required. In today's industry of game studios producing games for publishers who often have their own testing teams, this round trip process can be costly and introduce the risk of not meeting the sensitive holiday deadlines.